Red Ribbon of Fate
by unrelentiing
Summary: There is something normal about the friendship between two girls. Then again, when you're Sakura and Ino, nothing is really considered normal.
1. Where We Start

A/N: Wow, it has been a while. So I have been in a bit of a slump regarding writing fanfiction for a while now. But, it's summer now, and it's my last summer before college so I think I should be doing something productive haha. So here's a little something, even though it's a bit old. Hopefully I'll be able to update more soon :)

I've always loved Sakura and Ino's friendship, though I honestly don't know where these collection of stories is going to go. I hope you enjoy.

* * *

Sakura didn't know what to do.

She was tired and couldn't stop crying. The girls in her class were relentless. Especially Aki. She was one of the worst. Her group just couldn't leave her alone, even when she was minding her own business they'd constantly harass her. Today was one of the few moments when they actually got physical. Usually, they would just call her ugly or make fun of her large forehead. Now they decided to push her onto the ground. Forcefully poking her on the center of her head.

"Your crying is just making your face even uglier." Aki said.

"I didn't even know that was possible!" exclaimed one of her friends.

"This is just payback for embarrassing me in class today." Aki said, "maybe next time you should remember who you are. Stupid and ugly."

"Let's just go Aki, I don't really wanna see her ugly forehead anymore anyway."

"Okay, let's go."

Before leaving she turned around and stuck her tongue out at Sakura's crying figure.

Instead of getting up from the dirt, Sakura just sat there, bringing her knees closer to her body so she could rest her head. Running her hands through her hair, she started to bring as much hair as she could to the front of her face. She knew she couldn't come home like this, her parents would be so angry. They'd try to convince her to leave the Ninja Academy, since they already knew of these girl's reputation. Or worse, they'd actually talk to Iruka, making the whole situation even worse. This whole thing was just so embarrassing. She felt pathetic.

"Are you okay?"

Sakura visibly jumped at the question. She didn't even hear anyone approaching.

Her eyes moved up towards the figure. After her eyes adjusted, she saw a girl about her age, with short blonde hair, bangs pulled back with a clip, and bright blue eyes.

"Um..fine." Sakura managed to say. Her breathing was still heavy, but thankfully the tears weren't coming out as much as they were before.

"You know, I would believe you, but you have obviously been crying," the girl said lightly, "so" drawing out the o sound, "I won't."

"Actually," the girl continued, "do I know you?"

When she asked this, Sakura tried to rummage through her memory for where she could have possibly seen this girl. Until she remembered a blonde girl in her class, always confidently answering questions, people flocking around her. From bits and pieces she heard around class, her dad is apparently the leader of a well-known clan.

"I-I think we're in the same class."

Confusion swept through the young girls eyes, but they soon went away.

"Oh! Yes! I know who you are, Sakura right?" The girl crouched down so she was at eye-level with Sakura.

"Yes."

"I remember you now, I don't know how I didn't know sooner, I loved your hair when I first saw you." she said, "do you know who I am?"

Her voice was obviously teasing, but Sakura's face turned a shade of red, feeling embarrassed.

"No.." she responded, eyes directed at the ground.

The girl laughed. "I'm Ino, Ino Yamanaka."

"Ino?"

"Yup, Ino?"

"Like..pig?" Sakura immediately regretted what she said, realizing what she said sounded a bit like an insult. Instead of getting mad, Ino let out a small laugh.

"Sadly yes, unlike me, your name actually fits you."

"I guess." Sakura was still looking at the ground.

She couldn't understand why this girl, Ino, was being so nice to her. This had to be a trick.

"Sakura, like the cherry blossom tree, and then ..uh"

"Haruno."

Ino's eyes lit up. "Haruno! So..blooming fields!" she said, excitement obvious in her eyes, "wow, that is such a fitting name."

Sakura just remained quiet. She hasn't been complimented in a long time so she didn't really know how to take it. Ino looked at her, she looked at the ground. It was common knowledge that Ino was pretty popular, anong boys and girls. Sakura couldn't understand her kindess. Most of the popular girls she has experienced were horrible to her.

"Hey," Ino said, "look at me." Sakura slowly looked, though her bangs were obstructing her view. Ino placed her hand over her forehead and lightly pushed her bangs back, which caused Sakura to flinch back.

"Don't do that!" Sakura yelled. Her sudden exclamation startled Ino, but then a light laugh escaped her lips.

"Oh look, she speaks." Ino said jokingly. Sakura immediately felt bad for yelling. Why couldn't she just do something right for once? Someone was finally being nice to her and she had the nerve to yell at them. These thoughts were starting to become overwhelming, and tears started to fall from her green eyes again.

"I-I'm sorry," she said stuttered, "it's just, everyone makes fun of my forehead," her breathe hitched. "It's just so big."

"I've heard." Ino frowned.

"Look, stop crying." she placed a hand on Sakura's shoulder, "Honestly, those girls just feel bad about themselves, that's why they pick on you. You're really pretty Sakura, you shouldn't let them make you hide yourself."

Ino pulled something out of her pocket. It was a bright red ribbon,

"My dad gave this to me, but honestly I think it would look way better on you than on me."

She took the ribbon and wrapped it around the back of Sakura's head, bringing the two ends to the top of her scalp. When she tied the two ends together, she made sure to adjust Sakura's bangs so that they were out of her face. As she finished, she moved back and admired her work.

"I was so right," Ino smiled.

Sakura felt extremely self conscious that her forehead was completely visible, but it started to slowly fade away with Ino's compliment. She raised her hand towards the ribbon and felt the material in her hair and she couldn't help but smile. Which made Ino immediately smile brighter.

"You should smile more often!" Ino exclaimed, "that just made you like a hundred times prettier."

This made Sakura laugh, and Ino joined in.

Ino stood up, and reached her hand out to Sakura, who was still sitting on the ground. Sakura took it, and lifted herself up with Ino's assistance.

"Thank you Ino," Sakura said.

"It's no problem." Ino said with her signature smile. Though, a small frown soon replaced it.

"I should get going, my dad is probably worried that I'm not home already."

Sakura realized the same could be said for her parents.

"Yeah..." Sakura said sadly, "I should too."

Ino soon started smiling again, and she had this look of excitement on her face.

"We should totally hang out soon." Ino said, "Why do you look so surprised?"

"Sorry," Sakura said "It's just I didn't think you'd want to hang out still."

"Uhh, of course I would." responded Ino, "I mean we're friends after all."

"We are?"

"Yes Sakura, me giving you that ribbon is a sign of our friendship." Ino said, "let's shake on it."

Her hand reached out towards Sakura.

Sakura hasn't felt this happy in what felt like forever. She felt light and couldn't wait to get home and tell her parents about this confident girl who was so kind to her.

She took Ino's hand.

And they shook.


	2. Flower Arrangements

The days after their initial meeting, it was obvious the girls were becoming closer and closer. Ino was bubbly, starting the conversations. Sakura would respond, though more reserved. Though, slowly, she was starting to open up more.

One day, Ino invited Sakura over to visit their family flower shop.

As they approached the flower shop, Sakura was shocked by the size. She has been to her fair share of flower shops, relatives were always buying cherry blossoms for her, but there hasn't been one this large. Then again, those shops were usually just flower carts. Ino's flower shop was an actual building, it's walls were painted a bright yellow color. The window frames were red, and a wide assortment of flowers were showcased in front of them. There was a dark orange awning covering them, just enough so that they weren't getting too much sun. On top of the awning there was a bright sign that said "Yamanaka Flowers" in clear writing.

Sakura let out a 'wow' and Ino was very impressed with the reaction.

"See," Ino said, "I told you this wasn't just any flower shop."

"I don't know how I've never been here before."

"Well now you are, so let's go in." Ino said, leading her inside "there's no point in just standing outside."

The inside was even more amazing. Flowers seemed to be everywhere. There were aisles that showed various flowers, all differing in shape and size. Sakura only found a few that were really recognizable to her. The smell was also amazing. Her senses were bombarded with the sweet scent of flowers.

"This is so pretty." Sakura said in awe.

Ino just laughed, "Thanks!"

"Well who is this?"

Ino's eyes immediately moved towards the voice. Sakura's gaze trailed behind. When she found the source, she was intimidated. The man was very tall. He was wearing a dark coat, and his hair was tied up in a high ponytail. It was so long it seemed to trail behind him.

"Dad!" Ino said excitedly "this is Sakura!"

"H-hello." Sakura said. She was trying to keep eye contact as much as possible. Ino's dad was just a bit scary to her. As he walked closer he seemed to just get bigger and bigger. When he got close towards the two girls, he kneeled down and wrapped one arm around his daughter.

"Dad, stop, your embarrassing me." Ino said, trying to be as serious as she could. Though you couldn't take her very seriously with her pouting.

"What's wrong, I can't show my little girl I love her in front of her new friend." her dad said.

He released his grasp on Ino, and reached his hand out towards Sakura.

"I'm Inoichi," he said, "so you're the Sakura I've heard about."

Sakura shook his hand.

"Y-yes I am."

"Ino has told me a lot about you." Inoichi chuckled.

The laugh worried Sakura a little bit. "Like what?"

"Only good things don't worry."

As he stood up straight, Ino tugged on the hem of his shirt. Getting his attention, she asked "Dad, is it alright if Sakura arranges some flowers with me? I'm just going to show her some of my favorite flowers first."

"Of course you two can, just don't make a mess," Inoichi said "or you'll be cleaning it up Ino."

"Fiiine dad."

After this conversation, the two girls spent the first part of their afternoon looking at various flowers. Ino obviously knew what she was talking about. She went in depth on some of her favorites. Sakura soaked in all of the information. It was easy to follow along since Ino's commentary was interesting.

"This flower is called Amaryllis," Ino said enunciating the name carefully "it represents the word dramatic. I'd like to think it's because that's what it looks like, I mean isn't it so pretty how it fades in from white to a pink color."

"Do you know the actual reason?"

"Uh.." Ino said, "No, not really, but I'll let you know!"

Besides this Sakura ended up learning so much more about flower meanings. Like white carnations mean remembrance. If you give someone a pink tulip, it means that you care. On the other hand if you give someone a yellow tulip it means you're hopelessly in love. Even though it confused Sakura how people could come up with these meanings, it was still very interesting to learn. She had to give her parents some flowers now since she now knows that there is so much behind them.

"Okay Sakura, let's go arrange some flowers." Ino said.

Ino led Sakura into an area away from the main store. They walked through a doorway which led through a medium-sized green room in the back. The flowers were arranged in aisles again, though it wasn't as organized as the main store.

"This is where we grow a majority of our stuff, well, it's whatever can be grown locally." Ino brought Sakura to table towards the back of the room. On the table, there was a vase and some other objects strewn about. There was scissors, packets of seeds and something else she couldn't recognize. It was this foamy material that Sakura couldn't place a name on.

"So, my student." Ino said, which made Sakura giggle. She brought up her pointer finger and let out a "sh."

"This is an important lesson Ms. Haruno it's important you pay attention." Sakura just laughed some more.

"Sakuraaa."

"Okay, okay" Sakura said, still holding in some laughs.

"Alright, so to begin with flower arranging, you always need to pick the bigger flowers first. If you place small flowers first, it's going to look like the big flowers are drowning them. Also you have to cut the stems before you place them in the vase because fresh cuts can take in more water."

Ino also held up the packets that were next to the scissors, "Also, beforehand your flowers should be in water and you should put this stuff in the water. It's like flower food."

"Flower food?"

"Yeah! Flowers need food too! If anything they need more care than people at times. Or so my dad says."

Then she held up the foamy material. "This is called flower foam, you use this when you're arranging the flowers. You stick the stem into the foam. It makes it so much easier to make the flowers stay where you want them to."

"Isn't that bad for the flowers though?"

"No actually, you can water this foam and the flower will still be able to take it in."

Ino was obviously impressed with herself. Sakura was actually very happy with how this day was going. She loved learning new things, and this has been one big learning experience with someone she could call a friend. Plus, she got to see Ino being so enthusiastic about something which felt very inspiring. She wished that she could find something she could be this passionate about.

"So do you want to start?" Ino asked expectantly.

"Yeah sure, I think I get the basics."

"Nice," Ino smiled "let's start picking out our flowers."

Ino picked flowers that ranged in blues, purples, and some greens. Sakura picked a lot of pink and reds, a few white flowers too. Since Ino had three colors she thought she needed three too. As they started to arrange everything it was obvious Ino did this often. Her arrangment was fleshing out nicely. The big purple flowers she picked were being accentuated by these medium dark-blue flowers. She then placed these tiny green flowers into some sections which just added even more life to it. Sakura tried to mimic what Ino was doing with her colors, but it showed that she wasn't as experienced. Sometimes she even struggled to get the stem into the foam.

Sakura was still impressed with her work. Her big flowers were pink, and she accentuated them with the smaller red and white flowers. The red and white flowers were so close in size though that it didn't add as much depth. It also wasn't smoothly shaped. Ino's seemed to make a perfect dome, while Sakura's had some flowers sticking out making an awkward kind of lump.

"Yours is so pretty Ino." Sakura said.

"Thanks," Ino responded "I actually got really lucky with this one, yesterday was an absolute disaster."

"I doubt it was as bad as mine."

"No! I actually really like yours!" Ino said, "it's really great for your first time. If we do this again you should just pick a different color besides white, since it makes it look like it's for Valentine's Day. Which would be good if it wasn't April."

This comment made Sakura burst with laughter. Which left Ino confused.

"Why are you laughing that wasn't even that funny." Ino said through a smile.

"Sorry, it's just that I'm really happy."

"Really Sakura?"

"Yeah, I haven't had this much fun in a long time."

Ino's smile just got larger.

"Well that makes me very happy then. I'm so glad we're friends, you're really cool Sakura."

Sakura was so happy she could cry, but she knew she couldn't do that in front of her. That would just be embarrassing. So instead she focused on how the sun made the sky look through the glass of the green room. The whole room seemed to turn into a beautiful red. It was a little sad though, because the setting sun meant she'd have to go soon.

"I'm really glad too," Sakura said " but I'm sad I have to leave soon."

"Well, we've got a lot of time to hang out some more anyway." Ino said. "I mean we are hanging out again, right?" she teased.

"Of course!"

"Good!" Ino said happily, "I'll walk you out, since I'm such a great host."

"I thought you were a teacher?"

"Why can't I be both?"

As they reached the entrance, Ino handed Sakura her arrangement and then gave her something extra. She stuck in a yellow rose into the center. The yellow actually looked nice with the red, Sakura thought it had a unique look. Maybe if she took out the white it would look even better.

"What's this?" Sakura asked.

"A pink daisy." Ino said, sarcasm lacing her voice

"Shut up." laughed the pink haired girl, "What does it mean?"

"It means friendship."

* * *

 **A/N: I have a big problem with writing too much, this was almost 5 pages and it was mostly filled with useless stuff. In the end I still don't know how I feel about this chapter. Also, sorry for no updates I was on vacation :]**


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